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Alana heard herself moan from the exquisite pleasure of being kissed and touched by a man she’d been lusting after for so long. But she also heard something else. A little dinging sound, and it took several moments for her to realize that it was her phone, alerting her to a text. A text she had no intention of checking.
But apparently Egan had a different notion about that.
He tore his mouth from hers, and with his breath gusting, he looked at her. “It could be Tilly.”
Dang it, he was right, and that meant Alana had to press pause on the pleasure so she could check and make sure her former mother-in-law was okay.
Alana reached over and yanked out her phone. It took her a couple of seconds to focus, though, before she could read what was on the screen. Then, she groaned.
Yes, it was from Tilly, and the woman didn’t even attempt to reassure Alana that all was well.
Sorry I haven’t answered your text before now, but I got some disturbing news today. Please meet me at the city park tomorrow morning at eight because we’ve got to completely rethink Jack’s life celebration. In the meantime, stay far, far away from Egan Donnelly.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
EGANDIDN’TEVENbother to try to caffeinate himself enough to get rid of the headache that was throbbing away at his temples. He just accepted the pain and the fact that this was probably going to be a shitty morning when he finally faced the music.
Or rather when he finally faced Tilly now that she knew the truth.
Of course, Tilly hadn’t invited him to this 8:00 a.m. meeting at the park, but Egan had no intention of having Alana meet with the woman alone. Especially since Alana would no doubt just try to excuse away his guilt by bringing up her argument with Jack. Egan was going to try to put a stop to Alana spilling any of that since it would only muddy already muddy waters. That’s why he was standing around at the park a good fifteen minutes before Tilly and Alana were supposed to show.
Tilly would be shocked to see him. Probably not Alana, though. The night before, after she had gotten the text that had ended the “scorching kissing” session, Egan had told her that he wanted to be there at the meeting. Alana had insisted that wasn’t a good idea, that she could talk to Tilly alone and try to suss out what Tilly was feeling. He’d insisted right back that sooner or later he had to talk to Tilly if only so the woman could shout and scream at him. And he was pretty sure there’d be some kind of emotional reaction on Tilly’s part.
Tilly’s text to Alana had given him clues as to the possible emotional reactions. She’d said she’d gottendisturbing newsandwe’ve got to completely rethink Jack’s life celebration. Definitely not the words of a woman who had glossed over what she’d learned from Egan.
This was all part of the grief process, and while he didn’t think for a second that such screaming and shouting would clear the air and heal Tilly, it was better than the pent-up anger eating away at her. Egan knew all too well that wasn’t the way to go. Too bad he hadn’t found a way to work out that anger at himself.
A little voice in his head disagreed with that.
At first, he blamed that little voice on his headache. But he knew all the kissing and touching he’d done with Alana had given him at least a temporary reprieve. Probably because it was next to impossible to think of anything else while they were going at each other. However, a bit of the buzz he’d gotten from her had carried through the night and here into the morning. It wasn’t a cure for all that ailed him, but it didn’t make things worse, either.
Well, not on one level.
Of course, down the road, it could lead to disaster, but Egan was toying with the notion that Alana and he could work out some of their feelings and frustrations together. That was the lust’s way of thinking, anyway, but since everything else he’d tried had failed, he wasn’t ruling out unbridled passion, and really good sex, to put him and Alana on the path to resolving at least some of their misery.
First, though, he had to get past this hurdle with Tilly. Then there was the hurdle with his father. His dad was recovering, sort of, but very soon Egan was going to have to sit down with him and work out, well, everything. It would have been both a blessing and a curse if his dad had been trying to get back to work, to push to have things back the way they were before his heart attack. But he wasn’t. It was as if he’d checked out, and while Egan didn’t want him going full throttle, he also didn’t want his dad to think his life was over.
He felt his body brace at the sound of a vehicle pulling into the parking lot, but the bracing eased some when he saw it wasn’t Tilly but rather Alana. She stepped out, not actually huffing, but she looked as if she wanted to. Clearly, though, she’d been expecting him because she got out, carrying a tray with three to-go cups of coffee.
“Tilly’s running a little late,” she said, walking to him and offering him one of the cups. “Marilu at the diner said you drink your coffee black. Since I knew you wouldn’t do the sensible thing and let me handle this meeting, I got you a large.”
“Thanks,” he said, taking the cup. “You already talked to Tilly this morning?”
She shook her head, had a sip of her own black coffee. “Just a text from her to tell me she had to drop by the hardware store to pick up something before coming here, and it doesn’t open until eight.”
Which was right about now. The hardware store, though, was just up the street, but that would still give him a few minutes to try to talk Alana out of—
“No,” she said, interrupting his thoughts. “I’m telling Tilly about the argument I had with Jack. I’m tired of living with the guilt, too.”
There weren’t many things Alana could have said to get him to back off, but that was one of them. Egan understood the hungry bites that guilt could take out of you. So could the consequences of the truth. But since it was a “damned if you do, damned if you didn’t” situation both ways, the truth just felt like the right thing.
Mostly.
“You’re not going to tell Tilly about Jack cheating,” he said, not a question.
“No,” Alana quickly assured him. “Tilly will get to keep the memory of what she believes was a perfect son. I’ll be the bad guy in this. And you,” she added with a sigh. “And I suspect after I tell her about the argument, then Tilly will want me to take a back seat at the life celebration.”
“I’m sure I’m uninvited,” he said, and it surprised him that he felt some pangs of regret about it.
